Wellington

Today is the 100th anniversary of the deadliest avalanche in U.S. history, 96 people lost their lives when 10 foot high, half mile long, quarter mile wide slab of snow broke loose above the railroad on Windy Mountain, knocking two trains down an 150 foot hillside to the Tye River. It would take days for the line to be re-opened and months to recover all the bodies. The avalanche had some lasting impacts on the Northwest, first Wellington, the scene of the avalanche was renamed Tye, shortly after the accident. Then 9 miles of snow sheds were constructed between Scene and Tye and finally in 1929 the 7.8 mile tunnel under Stevens Pass was opened and Tye passed into history, the tracks were pulled and the town burned.

When I was a kid I can remember the snow sheds on the opposite side of Stevens Pass, my dad and I did a lot fishing in those days and drove over the pass several times a year, the sheds always fascinated me, ghostly reminders of an antique age. For 10 or 11 year old, time is hard to put into perspective. I remember we drove over pass one spring after a tough winter and the sheds had collapsed. I was sadden no epitaph, no words of thanks for years that they stood quiet guard, the lasting legacy of Wellington. Of course, I didn't know of Wellington at the time, all I knew was that this stoic old sheds had given up the ghost. From then on the trip over the pass was always a bit sad.

Back before the sheds the Great Northern relied on men with shovels, whom were paid 15 cents a hour, and rotary snowplows to clear the tracks. When the big storms hit in late February 1910, the big rotaries worked for days to try to open the route between Wellington and Scene but at last, with Wellington cutoff from the east and the west, coal began to run short, finally there was only enough left to warm the passengers. The rotaries where silent, then shortly after midnight on March 1st, in a driving rain and thunderstorm, the snow gave way and took 6 locomotives, 15 rail cars and 96 lives down to the Tye River.

Tonight's photo is Rotary Snowplow # 10. This plow was the Northern Pacific's plow to keep Stampede Pass clear, it was built about the same time as those used by the Great Northern on Stevens Pass.